How is Wentworth’s natural abstraction idea different to Dennett’s real patterns or Lewis’ natural kinds?
- Lewis really cares about natural properties, and he says a property is more natural than another iff it can be defined more simply in terms of perfectly natural properties.
Dennett’s Real Patterns
Key Features:
- A pattern is “real” if it supports better-than-chance predictions
- Different patterns exist at different levels of abstraction/compression
- There’s no privileged level - usefulness determines reality
- Patterns can be objective despite being observer-relative
Classic Example: Conway’s Game of Life
- Can describe at pixel level (perfect, inefficient)
- Can describe at pattern level (“gliders”, “eaters” - compressed but predictive)
- Both descriptions are real, neither more fundamental
Key Difference from Lewis:
- No metaphysically privileged “natural properties”
- Reality of patterns judged by predictive power
- Instrumentalist rather than realist approach